


Real

by orphan_account



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Sexy Zone
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 19:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1399858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kento doesn't open his eyes, Fuma agrees to travel into his mind to find out why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Real

**Author's Note:**

> This was a very spontaneous idea I had last night, and that kept haunting me all the way until today. I wrote it down in one go, and I am glad to have it off my mind now XD  
> This one is very different from my other fics, but I hope you will enjoy it anyways. It was interesting to write.  
> The story line is based on the japanese movie "REAL" with Sato Takeru and Ayase Haruka.

Fuma’s POV

“Kento, what is going on with you?!” I called in exasperation as I hurried after him, unwilling to let him flee like this.

“I don’t even know what you are talking about!” Kento snapped, and that hostility in his voice was something I was not used to at all, and it made me even more angry.

“You are closed off!” I groaned, finally getting close enough to be able to grab his wrist and effectively keep him from running. “You don’t talk to anyone, neither the kids or me, and it’s worrying us!”

“What do you care?!” Kento yelled. “It’s none of your business!”

“You are my friend, you fucking idiot!” I groaned, _so_ close to punching him right in the face. “And even if I weren’t, what happens inside the band will _always_ be my business!” 

“I’m doing my work!” Kento groaned. “I am doing what everyone expects of me, so just get off my back!” With those words, he pulled his wrist free of my grip, and I stared at him incredulous as he turned around to leave. 

“Fine!” I screamed after him. “I won’t ask anymore, do whatever you want!”

Kento did not look at me, and I spinned around, intending to get to my car as quickly as possible, to get as far away as I could from _him_.

Then, I heard the squealing of tires, and a crash. I froze, my eyes widening, heart stopping for a moment.

Very carefully I turned my head, looking back to where Kento had just disappeared. My eyes caught on the figure lying on the asphalt immediately, in a pool of his own blood, unmoving. I did not even need to pay attention to the clothes to know it was him. 

I could not think. I was screaming his name and running towards him, and then, everything went black.

***

“Fuma!” someone was shaking me, and I opened my eyes, disoriented for a moment, until I felt Kento’s unmoving hand in mine. I squeezed it with a sigh before looking up at his face, eyes closed like they had been for the past couple of weeks. The heart monitor and all the machines he was connected to were disturbingly loud, even if I was used to them.

“Fuma!” 

I blinked and turned to find Marius standing behind me, looking at me in a mix of tiredness and disapproval. 

“If you are tired, go home” he said gently.

“I am fine” I lied, turning back to watch Kento’s face.

“It’s not healthy what you are doing!” he insisted. “You are here _all the time_.”

“It helps him when I am here” I repeated stubbornly, like a broken record, and Marius sighed.

“You don’t even know if he can hear you!” Marius reminded me. “For all we know, he is brain dead, and-”

“He is not!” I hissed, glaring at him. “Stop saying that, what if he hears?!”

“It’s been three months, Fuma, and there was not a single reaction from him!” he murmured. “Maybe it would be best for all of us if we just moved on, with our lives _and_ with the band.” 

“There is no Sexy Zone without Kento” I almost growled, dangerous enough to make Marius retreat a step. 

“I bet Kento would want us to continue, though” he said softly. “He wouldn’t want us to-”

“Stop telling me what to do, I am still older than you!” I snapped. “It’s my choice, and I am not returning to a band without Nakajima Kento, even if it takes years until he wakes up!”

“... I know you feel guilty” Marius whispered, and his words hit me like a knife right in the chest. “But it was an accident, Fuma, and-”

“You don’t know _anything_ ” I groaned, and with that, Marius fell silent.

We only looked up when the door opened, and both of us nodded in greeting when Kento’s parents entered the hospital room, seeming as tired as I felt. 

Still, their eyes focused on me immediately, and Kento’s mother asked softly: “Fuma-Kun, can we talk to you for a moment?”

I blinked in surprise, before nodding. I threw another look at Kento, and only reluctantly let go of his hand, leaving him alone with Marius and following his parents out of the room. 

The hospital coffee tasted horrible. Kento would have hated it, I thought as I forced it down my throat, but as tired as I was, I inhaled all the caffeine I could get hold of. 

“Fuma-Kun” Kento’s mother began, her voice still very soft as she watched my face. “We really appreciate what you are doing, and-”

“If this will be another speech about me needing to get back to life or something, we can stop this right here and now” I said firmly, my jaw set. “I get that from my band mates and my parents and-”

“This is not what I was going to say” she ensured me. “If someone understands how you feel, it’s us, and we are really thankful for what you are doing. Talking to him and playing him music and doing everything to reach him. We keep hoping that it has some effect. Thanks for not giving him up, like everyone else does.”

I gulped, keeping quiet, waiting until she continued. 

“The doctors have finished their test, and they came to the conclusion that Kento’s brain is still working.”

My eyes shot up at the words, wide with hope.

“Really?” I whispered, my shaking hands closing around the cup in my hand.

“Yes” Kento’s mother nodded, and I found it a little hard to look at her because Kento had inherited her eyes, and every time I met them I saw _him_ instead. “He reacts to sensory manipulations, just not physically.”

“Both his brain and his body seem to be intact” Kento’s father continued, speaking up for the first time. He had become awfully quiet since Kento’s accident, though he was usually as talkative as his son. 

“Then why is he not waking up?” I demanded. 

“The doctors say that sometimes, an emotional trauma keeps coma patients from opening their eyes” His mother answered, frowning. “Maybe Kento is afraid of something, and does not _want_ to wake up.”

“What would he be afraid off?!” I called, a little too loudly, but I did not care that people turned to look at me. “Everyone is waiting for him to come back! His family, his friends,-”

“We don’t know, either” His father said. “But there may be a way to find out.”

I fell silent, staring at him curiously.

“There has been this new technology, that allows relatives to enter the mind of a coma patients and communicate with them” he explained, all the time keeping eye contact with me. “His subconscious mind is always working, and maybe, if we enter it, we might find out what is keeping him from waking up.”

“We want _you_ to go” Kento’s mother whispered, surprising me. 

“What?!” I blinked. “But - I am no relative, and-”

“But you always had a better connection to him than we had” she insisted. “You are his closest confident, and we think that if he might tell someone what is wrong, it would be you.”

“They say the subconscious mind can be confusing and sometimes even traumatizing” His father added. “It’s a world the owner creates, and according to their fears and worries, it might be dark and ruthless. I know it’s a lot to ask of you when we don’t know how Kento’s mind looks like, but-”

“I will do it” I interrupted him, my voice firm. “I will do whatever to make Kento wake up.”

Kento’s mother smiled softly, reaching out to lay her hand over mine.

“Thank you” she whispered. “We are so glad that Kento has a friend like you.”

I kept quiet, wondering if they would still say the same if they knew how we had fought before Kento’s accident.

***

The doctors introduced me into the subject of “mind traveling” for a whole week before I was allowed to try it. There were phenomenons to prepare me for, they had insisted, signs I needed to be able to read, but honestly, it felt like a weird mix between Literature and Psychology classes, explaining an awful lot of metaphors and behaviors that I was sure I would forget in a matter of seconds anyways.

“Patients are often hostile to people entering their mind forcefully” the doctor had warned me. “You need to proceed with care. Also, the patient knows that whatever is happening in his head is not real and will have no consequences. This is why he will act in ways he normally never would.”

I did not understand what they were talking about, though, until they first let me try it. 

The whole procedure was a little scary, to be honest. They brought me and Kento into a room full of machines and monitors and people, and I only had a moment to glance at his face before I was told to lay down onto an examination table, and various wires were connected to my temples and fingers. 

“Remember, Kikuchi-San, you can return whenever you wish” One of the nurses reminded me, obviously sensing my panic. “Nakajima-San cannot keep you in his head.”

“Okay” I nodded, taking a shaky breath and closing my eyes. 

“Ready?” The doctor checked.

“Yes” I nodded, and then, I heard the machines being started. 

***

_A sad melody filled my ear. It seemed lonely and made my heart ache from the underlying emotions, almost as if it was physically hurting me with each note like a dagger into my heart._

_I opened my eyes, taking in my surroundings. At first, I thought that there was nothing but darkness, but then, I saw a single light a few feet away, illuminating a piano._

_Kento was playing it, totally consumed by the melody he was creating and smiling slightly to himself, and I needed a moment to just stare at him and see his eyes opened, even though I knew that it was not real, that it was only inside my head. Or inside_ his _head, that was._

_I took a shaky breath before taking hesitant steps towards him. I bumped into something, and blinked when I saw chairs all around me, chairs that had not been there a moment ago._

_I realized that we were in the Yokohama Arena then, but it was empty and dark and only me and Kento were around. The piano began to sound eary, and the melody turned slightly threatening to my ears._

_I took a few more steps towards Kento through the masses of chairs, calling his name. Kento did not look up, but his fingers flew over the piano faster, speeding up the rhythm._

_“Kento!” I repeated when I bumped into someone. I blinked at what seemed to be a girl. Or better, a fan, Kento uchiwa and penlight in hand, and looking straight ahead, gaze focused on Kento._

_“Excuse me” I murmured, trying to push past her - only to freeze when I caught sight of her_ non-existing _face. She seemed like a mannequin that had never been finished, or a Manga character whose facial features had not been started yet._

_I looked around, seeing the stadium slowly fill itself with more faceless creatures, coming through the entrances and taking their places._

_I tried not to look at them as I pushed towards the stage, finally reaching it._

_“Kento” I called, climbing up the small stairs, gasping when they crumbled under my feet, fast enough that I barely had time to jump up and and dig my feet into the solid ground of the stage._

_Kento’s melody turned almost angry now, and I hesitated before I made my way towards him, reaching out to touch his shoulder._

_Still, Kento did not look up._

_“Kento, I know you can hear me” I said softly. “Please, let us talk.”_

_There was a clirring sound as Kento hit the wrong keys, halting in his movements, as if woken up from his trance by his mistake. He looked at his hands in confusion, still not taking note of my presence._

_“Kento!” I repeated, shaking him, and finally, he turned his head to meet my eyes._

_A slow smile spread over his face, but it was not real, and it was scaring me a little._

_“Fuma, you came just in time!” he called, jumping up. ”Look, all the fans have come, we need to perform!”_

_“We need to_ talk _, Kento!” I protested, distracted by a bunch of lollipop shaped balloons suddenly flowing through the stadium. I tried to ignore them, focusing on Kento again. “The doctors say that there is nothing wrong with your brain or your body. You are completely healthy, and still you are not waking up! Why?”_

_One of the balloons burst, and then the next one, so loudly that they made me flinch._

_Kento was still smiling, but it was so obviously fake that it made me want to scream at him, and then, he was humming to himself, the same slow, threatening melody he had played just now._

_I could see something huge move from the corner of my eyes, and when I turned to look for it, I saw a huge overdimensional turtle making it’s way towards us through the stadium._

_It made slow steps and people were looking at it and whispering._

_“Fuma, you don’t understand anything, do you?” Kento said suddenly, making me look up at him._

_I froze when he was holding a gun out at me, all pretense of a smile gone._

_“Kento” I murmured, shaking my head. “Please, I want to help you. Tell me what’s going on! Please-”_

_But then he pulled the trigger, and everything went dark._

***

I gasped as I woke up on the examination table in this room full of machines, and people were buzzing around me, the doctor was looking down at me curiously. 

“What did you see, Kikuchi-Kun?”

I was unable to answer. I only tried to sit up, being stopped by a couple of hands, craning my neck for Kento across the room on the other table, still unmoving, his eyes closed. 

***

“So he basically threw you out?” Sou whispered, sitting next to me at Kento’s bed. 

Ironically, I had grown closest to Sou within the band ever since Kento’s accident, though Sou had always clung more to Kento than to me, originally. Maybe it was because we shared that weakness for Kento, but he did not seem to judge me like Shori and Marius did, or try to push me away from Kento, and I was thankful for that. 

“He _shot_ me” I repeated, trying hard not to let the bitterness seep through my voice, and failing. “What did I _do_ to him?!”

“He said you did not understand him” Sou said slowly. “And you said you had this fight with him before the accident, and he has said similar things back then, right?” 

“Yes” I admitted, gulping. “But I am _trying_ to understand him, so why…”

“Maybe it was wrong to tell him that you want him to wake up” Sou mused. “Obviously, he doesn’t want to, so he might have felt pressured by your words.”

“But how else am I going to make him open his eyes?” I demanded. 

“Next time you go, just… play along with whatever he is doing?” he suggested. “I mean, he asked you to perform, so… Next time do it, and see what happens. It can’t be any worse than what happened this time.”

“So you mean… I should act like I am part of this world he created?” I murmured thoughtfully.

“Yes” Sou nodded. “Maybe if he feels like you belong there, he will trust you more.”

“Hmm… That makes sense” I agreed, sighing as I squeezed Kento’s hand in mine. “But honestly, his mind is a little scary. It seemed like some kind of bad horror movie.”

“It sounds like it, too” Sou said darkly. “Especially the faceless fans and the huge turtle. What is that about?!”

“The turtle did not seem scary” I shrugged, remembering it. “But the fans did. They were not nice and encouraging… Somehow threatening? As if they were judging him.”

“Maybe that’s what he is thinking. Maybe he feels pressured under the public eye.”

“But he loves his job” I shook my head, unwilling to accept that. “He lives for being an idol.”

“And still he is not waking up” Sou pointed out, making me fall silent. 

***

_I opened my eyes again, finding myself back in the deserted Yokohama Arena. I was a little relieved to see the faceless fans were not around this time. All I found were some forgotten fangoods and pieces of the lollipop balloons lying on the floor._

_The huge turtle was still walking through the arena, occasionally knocking over chairs since it was too big to fit through the rows. It held in for a moment to look at me, before continuing its way peacefully._

_Finally, I spotted Kento, lying on his back on the stage. He had a bottle of soap bubble fluid in his hand, and was lazily blowing bubbles into the air, seeming almost childish and innocent in his movements._

_Carefully, I made my way towards him. Again, the steps to the stage crumbled at my feet, but I managed to pull myself up anyways, continuing until I was standing over Kento, looking down at him._

_Kento held in when one of the bubbles hit my forehead and burst, looking weirdly disturbed by it._

_“What are you doing?” I asked gently, kneeling down to be able to look him better in the eyes._

_Kento did not answer for a moment, before smiling, bright and excitedly, and sitting up._

_“Fuma, come on, I need to show you something!” he called, reaching for my hand and getting up._

_I marveled in his touch for a moment as I followed him further onto the stage, towards a curtain. He grinned at me before pulling it aside._

_I blinked when behind the curtain, I could see a huge grass landscape with flowers and a tiny stream. Kento pulled me inside, and I took a short glance at the tiny flowers, recognizing them as the violet blossoms of forget-me-nots._

_“Look!” Kento called, and I raised my head to blink at a majestic white unicorn not far from us. Above us, the sky was unnaturally blue, and a bright rainbow was framing it almost perfectly._

_“Isn’t it beautiful?” Kento asked, grinning at me. “Let’s stay here forever, okay. Please don’t go anywhere!”_

_I blinked, trying to figure out what to answer, if to play along and promise something I knew I could not keep, or… But the longer I took to answer, the more Kento’s smile faded, turning into sadness and disappointment. There was thunder rolling somewhere, and thick clouds rolled up, darkening the scenery._

_“It’s not possible” he whispered. “This is my head, after all. You can’t stay here.”_

_“Then come with me” I said softly, squeezing his hand, but Kento did not seem to hear me._

_“I have always been alone” he continued, his voice quiet. “And will always be.”_

_“That’s not true!” I protested, but then, a flash of lightning hit the ground right next to me, and I flinched._

_I looked at Kento one more time, but his eyes were sad and cold as he stepped back, shaking off my hand._

_“Kento!” I called, but then, another flash hit the ground between us, keeping me from reaching out to him again._

_“Don’t come here again” I heard Kento’s voice, before everything became dark._

***

“Kento-Kun has always lived in his own world, somehow” Shori frowned, hugging his knees to his chest as he curled himself up on the couch of Kento’s hospital room. “Maybe this is what he tried to express?”

“I think the unicorn means that he feels like he is different, like he is a stranger” Marius said slowly. “And the flowers mean that he is afraid of being left behind.” All of us stared at him in confusion, and he shrugged. “It’s basic picture language, really!”

“But what does the turtle mean” Sou frowned. 

“He owns a turtle?” Shori offered.

“Turtles have a shell to hide in” Marius added. 

“I think the turtle represents him as a person, in some way” I said slowly. “Or how he sees himself, maybe… A little slow and dull, and easily scared, prone to hiding. Also, the faceless fans seemed to be judging it. So maybe…”

“Well, long story short, Kento has a lot of self doubts” Shori pointed out. “What are you going to do to make him get over them?”

“I need to show him that his fears are unfounded” I frowned, lacing my fingers through Kento’s unmoving again, looking at his face. “That I accept him the way he is.”

“He does not believe you, though” Sou said hesitantly. “He keeps shutting you out.”

“I have to keep trying” I murmured. “If I am persistent enough, maybe we can make progress.”

Everyone fell silent, and I hated the hopeless mood in the room more than anything. 

***

_I opened my eyes as I was nudged into the hip. I frowned, smiling involuntarily as I saw the turtle looking at me, not scared even though it was pretty much on eye level with me due to its immense size._

_The turtle nodded its head towards the stage, and I followed its gaze to see Kento lying on the stage, snuggled into a futon._

_I walked up towards him, this time not using the steps but pulling myself up with my arms. Kento did not stir, and when I kneeled down next to his sleeping figure, I stared at him for a moment before reaching out to gently stroke over his cheek._

_Kento opened his eyes slowly, smiling sleepily as he recognized me. I was a little surprised when his hand reached for my shirt, pulling at it._

_“Come here” he murmured, and I did not allow myself to hesitate as I crawled into the futon with him, sighing at the warmth of Kento’s body under the blankets._

_Kento pulled me close to him, burying his face in the fabric of my shirt, and I closed my arms around him instantly, marveling in how natural this felt, how good._

_We lay like this for a while, not doing anything more than holding each other, and when Kento’s head came up and edged closer to mine, I just closed my eyes and went with it._

_His lips were soft against mine, making me melt into it, hugging him even tighter as I kissed him back. It felt too real, even if I knew it was just an illusion, and for a moment, I wished I would never need to wake up, that I could stay here with him forever._

_We broke apart with a start at the sound of a balloon bursting. I hesitantly peeked over my shoulder to see that the lollipops were back, floating through the arena over the head of thousands of faceless fans._

_Kento tensed, obviously panicked, and I pulled him completely into me, surrounding him in my embrace._

_“Don’t look” I whispered. “I am here, they can’t harm you.”_

_“They are always watching” Kento whispered, and I pressed an uncoordinated kiss to his head, resting mine against it._

_The fans started to sing then, and I needed a moment to realize that it was the melody of “Candy”, Kento’s solo. Only it did sound nothing like it because it was threatening all of a sudden, and the calls of “Love Kenty!” sounded like a battle scream._

_Kento was shaking in my arms, and I heard him sob, and I held onto him with all I had, trying to protect him from this world he had created._

_I heard some loud noises, and peeked over my shoulder again to see that the turtle was fruitlessly trying to climb up the stage. Some fans were throwing uchiwas at it._

_“Stop it” Kento whimpered, and the turtle hid itself in its shell._

_***_

I blinked my eyes open, looking over to Kento’s motionless figure across the examination room, feeling like I had understood a whole lot more of what was going on than I had ever before.

I did not tell the others everything that had happened in Kento’s head this time. I explained about the fans and the turtle and Kento’s panic, but I did carefully leave out the kiss and the embrace, knowing that this was a thing Kento should share with the others whenever he was ready and awake. It was enough that _I_ understood now. 

***

_When I entered Kento’s mind the next time, I found myself immediately on stage with him. Kento was sitting on the ground, and I flopped down next to him, meeting his shy gaze._

_“I was waiting for you” he murmured. “I was not sure if you would come.”_

_“I will always be wherever you are” I said gently. “You are never alone.”_

_Kento smiled, and I reached out for him, pulling him in for another kiss. Kento sighed against my lips, letting me indulge him, and I marveled at the way he relaxed in my arms, leaning completely into me even when I broke our kiss._

_I looked out over the arena, seeing the turtle sitting in a corner, playing with what seemed like a group uchiwa. It seemed peaceful and made me smile._

_“Say, Kento” I whispered, kissing the top of his head. “Won’t you come with me? I miss you a lot.”_

_Kento tensed, and I was afraid that he would shut me out again, but when he talked, his voice was merely a little more quiet, not closed off or angry._

_“But we have everything here, don’t we?” he said slowly. “Why do we need to leave?”_

_“You don’t belong here” I murmured. “You belong into the real world, with me and Marius, Sou, Shori and your parents. Everyone is waiting for you.”_

_“But outside it’s dangerous and scary” he pointed out._

_“It’s not” I ensured him. “I will be with you! Let me show you?”_

_When Kento did not answer, I gently pushed him away to get to my feet, reaching out a hand for him to take._

_He hesitated, but with another look into my eyes, he took it, and I wondered if maybe,_ finally _, he had started trusting me a little._

_I pulled him up with me, and we took slow steps down the stage (the stairs solid this time) and throughout the arena. The turtle was waiting for us in the corridors, leading us the way towards the exit._

_When we reached the huge glass facade, I could see the faceless fans waiting outside, and Kento grabbed my hand a little tighter._

_“They can’t hurt you” I reminded him. “I am here.”_

_Kento took a deep breath and nodded, and the turtle slowly opened the door._

_We stepped outside, and the first few seconds went well enough, with the fans only staring, not doing anything, but it was too silent, no sound of cars or life, and it worried me._

_Then, I saw the fans moving, and all of them pulling out small guns. I had just enough time to pull Kento down behind the turtle before the first shots fell. The turtle squealed in fear, fleeing into its shell._

_“Stop!” I called loudly, but shots kept firing. “Why are they doing this?!”_

_“I can’t go with you, Fuma” Kento whispered, letting go of my hand._

_And then he stood up, walking back towards the entrance. I called after him, standing up to follow him, but then, a bullet hit me into the chest, and everything became dark._

***

“I was _so close!_ ” I called angrily, pacing around the room. “He agreed to come with me, and then these idiots started shooting!”

“You know that they are a part of him, too” Shori pointed out. “They probably incorporate his fears or doubts or whatever.”

“What is he still afraid of?!” I demanded. “I told him that I would be by his side, that nothing can happen to him!”

“And I think that he went with you shows that he wants to believe you” Marius said slowly, and I frowned at him, wondering when our youngest had become so good at feelings and metaphors. “But something seems to still be holding him.”

“ _What_?!” I groaned, and Marius shrugged.

“That’s for you to find out, I think” Sou said gently, watching Kento’s face, and I snorted. I had never been good at patience, and not having Kento here was slowly driving me out of my mind. 

***

_The Yokohama Arena was empty again when I opened my eyes, and somehow, it was not as dark as it had been the times I had been here before, inside Kento’s mind._

_Kento was sitting at the piano, playing a soft gentle melody, and I smiled as I strolled over to him, passing the turtle that was sitting at the foot of the stage, munching away on a banana. I patted it on the head softly, and it made a gurgling noise which I interpret as happiness, making me grin._

_Kento stopped playing when I approached him, smiling at me, and I sat down on the piano bench with him, taking his hand and entwining our fingers carefully._

_“I was not sure if you would come again” Kento admitted, and I squeezed his hand softly._

_“I told you, I will follow you everywhere, no matter how hard you make it for me” I reminded him, bumping his shoulder softly._

_“Why?” he asked, his voice low, and I sighed as I leaned my head onto his shoulder._

_“Because I love you” I confessed. “Just the way you are, with your insecurities and your weirdness and all that makes you the person I have grown so fond of in the last few years. Maybe I will not always understand you, and maybe I will become frustrated with it from time to time, but none of that changes how much you mean to me.”_

_I felt Kento’s head lean against mine after a moment of silence, closing my eyes at the contact._

_“I_ want _to come with you” he whispered. “I just don’t know how.”_

 _“You have to believe that you can” I whispered. “If you believe that they can’t harm you, they won’t. This is_ your _head, Kento. You can go_ anywhere _.”_

_“Will you be with me?” He checked, and I smiled._

_“Always” I ensured him, and Kento took a deep breath._

_“Okay” he nodded. “Let’s go.”_

_The faceless fans were out there all the same when we made it to the exit, hand in hand and the turtle ahead of us, but this time, Kento did not hesitate, just stepping out without looking back._

_There was no sound as we stepped outside, and I was overly aware of the people around us, but no one raised a gun this time, not even an uchiwa. All they did was follow us as we continued our way down the streets, none of them seeming like Yokohama, more like the area Kento lived in. Still, Kento seemed disoriented, looking at me for help._

_“Where are we?” he whispered, and I squeezed his hand as if to calm him._

_“It’s not far anymore” I promised. “Just a little while and then you are home.”_

_“What will everyone say?” He murmured, and I could hear the fans behind us talking again, sounding loud and obnoxious._

_“I don’t care” I said simply, and their voices became damp, as if suddenly coming from far away._

_“Okay” Kento nodded, and suddenly, we could see his house._

_His parents were standing near the door, smiling and waving, and Marius, Sou and Shori were trying to peek past them, loudly shouting our names._

_I smiled as I looked at Kento again._

_“Ready?” I murmured, and Kento took a deep breath before smiling as well._

_“Let’s go” he nodded._

***

I opened my eyes, disappointed at first when I found myself staring at the very same ceiling of the inspection room I had woken up to every time, convinced that it had not worked out once again.

But then, I heard voices, and people calling Kento’s name, and I sat up in confusion, looking over to his examination table.

Kento’s eyes were open, and he was looking at the people around him in confusion, apparently not understanding what was happening, and my mind was spinning. 

I almost tore the wires off my body, not caring about them as I jumped up to get to his side. 

“Kento” I called, and when he met my eyes he finally seemed to relax, smiling as he reached for my hand. I bit my lip, trying hard to hold in the tears I felt coming.

“Sorry for making you wait” he murmured, and I shook my head.

“Welcome back” I whispered, and Kento grinned sheepishly.

***

“Was it real?” Kento asked finally, later that night when it was already way past the visiting times but I still refused to leave his side, instead sitting in his hospital bed, Kento’s head in my lap. “Or was it just in my head?”

I smiled as I played with his soft dark hair. 

“It was in your head” I confirmed. “But why does that mean it wasn’t real?”

Kento chuckled, turning onto his back to look up at me, and I leaned down to press my lips against his. 


End file.
